


Negotiating From a Position of Strength

by dragonofdispair



Series: Unrelated Prompt Responses [25]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 09:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5660608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofdispair/pseuds/dragonofdispair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even a coward can be brave if he's got the right kind of back up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Negotiating From a Position of Strength

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarthKrande](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthKrande/gifts).



> Failed attempt at answering Darth Krande's prompt for the challenge. Still was a good ficlet IMHO so here it goes.

Grimlock was one of the Autobot powerhouses. Tarn could — had — faced him with the rest of his unit around him. That was easy. The lot of them could overcome a rampaging dino… but Vos and the others weren’t anywhere nearby. The lout had already torn off one of his treads. He was bleeding and if no one answered his distress calls soon he was going to be greasy smear all over the ground…

He continued to speak soothingly to the dumb Autobot, but the beast’s savagery was not easily calmed and kept flaring to  _lethal intent_  whenever his voice hitched or he ran out of words… he couldn’t keep this up forever. Like all such abilities, this drew on his spark and eventually he’d drain the last of his strength into this. But what else could he do? He needed backup, and he needed time for that backup to arrive. He was stalling.

“Grimlock?” A hesitant voice called from nearby and the dinobot’s  _lethal intent_  became  _protective lethal intent_  and Tarn’s whispers nearly lost control of him.  _More Autobots_  he thought. Hopefully whoever it was would be more interested in bringing him back to whatever passed as leadership to be tried for warcrimes instead of just letting Grimlock use him as a chew toy. “Frag Grim! Answer me you big lump. Ship’s almost ready to leave.”

Razor-sharp dino-teeth were already bared at Tarn, but Grimlock managed to reveal an extra-threatening number of them as he answered the voice. “Here.”

Footsteps came nearer and  _protective lethal intent_  flared again, resonating along a flaring of metal, a coiling of hydraulic cables for a lunge… “Shhhh…” Tarn whispered, feeling like he was holding back a flash-flood with his fingertips, “I won’t hurt your friend. Just let me go and no one has to…” experience had him shying from the word  _kill_  as no matter how tight a hold he had over the dino’s spark that word spoke to instincts that would break that control in less than a spark-pulse “… get hurt today.”

Grimlock growled softly, low enough that it was felt more than heard and it still sent little pieces of debris trembling and shaking. “Threat.” And Tarn continued his lowly spoken assurances that that was  _not_  the case. He was not a threat. He didn’t point out that his current injuries were severe — like the word  _kill_  pointing out he was injured and weak prompted the dino to finish the job. Blasted beast-forms and their blasted instincts. Frantically he wove spider’s silk-thin restraints around the beast’s spark, only for a shudder of metal plating, a snarl, a flare of  _protect_  to tear them all to shreds and he started again in an effort to stay those teeth for a moment longer.

“Here?” The unknown Autobot called out. “How wonderfully nonspecific. Has anyone ever told you that you are  _terrible_  at giving directions?”

“Here,” Grimlock repeated.

“I know  _that_. I don’t suppose you could, I don’t know,  _come to me_  instead of making me find you?” The Autobot was close and Tarn swallowed what was left of his pride and prepared to make a case for bringing him back to Autobot command for a trial — which would keep him alive and give the rest of the DJD a chance to rescue him. Finally the Autobot came into view… “Really, you know the commander doesn’t like it when you bring back any souvenirs Grimlock, I don’t know why we — Oh,” Fulcrum said, seeing just  _what_  Grim had captured this time.

Tarn and Fulcrum stared at each other, Grimlock’s growl building momentum once again and absently the K-class Decepticon reached out to put his tiny fingers on the T-rex’s leg. Tarn almost called out a warning — useless as it would have been — but the Autobot didn’t attack. Instead the growl built, echoing around the ruined warehouse where they’d fought, but that light touch held back those lethal teeth more surely than Tarn’s commands ever had.

Finally shock, then a brief flare of panic, faded from the small Decepticon's optics. Tarn was injured; Fulcrum — somehow, inexplicably — controlled Grimlock. Even a coward could calculate those odds. Something that was still too nervous to be called confidence settled into his struts. “This is awkward,” the Decepticon offered. Tarn opened his mouth and Fulcrum gave out a squeak that had Grimlock lunging and snapping his jaws just inches from Tarn’s face, fire licking along his plating. “Don’t talk!” the K-class commanded fearfully. “Just… I don’t know, nod or something, okay?”

Warily, Tarn nodded. He understood. Injured and faced with the one who held Grimlock in check he was powerless and Fulcrum didn’t want Tarn using his voice-power on him.

Fans whirred as they drew in air to cool overheated circuits as the momentary panic ebbed. “Okay… I’m… It looks like we have two options, really,” Fulcrum finally said. “One, I can take Grimlock, you forget we were here and I’ll get us away from here — since I presume the rest of you are nearby — and we can all pretend this embarrassing incident  _never happened_. Or two,” the Decepticon drew himself up to the fullest extent of his not-impressive height, “Or I can  _let_  Grimlock kill,” the word set off another growl that shook their struts and the dino snapped his teeth on the air, but he didn’t lunge, “you, and leave while your unit’s distracted with finding a new, loyal, Tarn. It won’t take us off the List, but it might buy us all some breathing room, wouldn’t it?”

Tarn nodded, because it was true. A new Tarn would have new priorities. The so-called Scavengers, truly minor, unimportant specimens that the were, would likely get lost in the cracks. He opened his mouth to make a counter-offer, then closed it. No speaking.

It seemed even a coward could be brave when he had a massive fire-breathing dinobot at backup. “Remember I’m the reason Grimlock hasn’t killed you  _yet_ …I suppose you have an offer?”


End file.
